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Georgia coast, state readies for Ian

It’s all hands on deck for emergeny responders and officials across Georgia as whatever remains of Ian makes its way to the state in a couple days’ time.

Gov. Brian Kemp toured the newly activated State Operations Center on Wednesday. “It’s really going to depend, too, when the storm hits, what the tides look like, how that may affect places like St. Mary’s, or St. Simon’s, or perhaps Savannah,” Kemp said.

Coastal residents are clearing store shelves of supplies. “It is mayhem inside. Obviously everyone here preparing for the worst-case scenario, hoping that doesn’t happen,” says WSB Radio digital content producer Nicole Bennett, who is in Savannah. She stopped by an area Walmart. “Last that I checked, there was almost no bread left, there was no bottled water left on the shelves at least at this particular Walmart, and I checked with an employee - there are about three battery-powered flashlights left in the entire store.”

Meanwhile, the Georgia Department of Transportation is heightening its alert level. “Crews throughout certainly southeast Georgia, our coastal region up into Atlanta, preparing for what might be a lot of flooding and trees down,” GDOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale tells WSB. “We are pulling construction lane closures in that region south of Atlanta down (I)-75, (I)-95, to make sure we have as much capacity flowing as possible.”

Dale says even when the rain and winds die down sometime this weekend, she wants drivers to keep in mind: “If we’ve had roads or bridges inundated by water, we have to inspect those roads, inspect those bridges before we can feel comfortable that it is safe to put cars back on those stretches of road.”

Stay with 95.5 WSB online and on-air for the latest updates on Ian’s trek into Georgia.


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